Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-05-17
SHOP GIRLS HOTEL.
HOW A WORKlNGWOMEN'S HOME
WAS ESTABLISHED IN NEW YORK.
A Brown Haired American Girl the
Head and Front of the Undertaking.
Stalking All on a Desperate Chance-A
Delighted Flock.

lnere Is working womenS hotel In opera
ton in New York city, which was started by
the capital of shop girls, which is run by shop
girls and which accommodates shop girls 1t
keeps roof over the heads of some seventy
inmates, and it never asks the workingwoman
to barter her Independence for a home.
sturdy, brown haired American girl of 25 or
thereabouts has been the head and front of
the undertaking from the start, and the other
day she gave me al outline of the scheme
"Tbere are three of u.s." she said, "and we
came to the city together a couple of years
ago. Father left us $500 apiece and beyond
that we each had two hands and nothing
more. We had no trade; nobody at home
had ever thought of orr needing one, and we
were unused to work of any kind We drifted
into the shops, of course. Every girl with one
good gown and who knows how to comb her
hair does that in the city TODAY
Il earned IS a week and the others had 81
a week at the start and we lived like some
thousands more. That means a top floor bed
room, gas jet, tin pail bakers bread and
tea. We had to have car fare, we had to have
clothes and the bread and butter had to shift
for themselves"
Just when she began to think of other pos
sibilities, this energetic piece of feminine hu-
nlanlty told me she did not know A scheme
had been in her mind almost from the start.
Il was sure, as soon as the idea came to me"
she said, that if l could once find the right
sort of house. in the right part of the city,
and manage the housekeeping as cleverly and
carefully as they do back in the country, I
could contrive a decent sort of home living
for my sisters for myself and for a good
many women beside. at rates that shop girls
can afford 10 pay.
The difficulty was about risking our little
capital 1t didn't earn much for us in the saw
ings bank, but it was all we had you know,
and We had never touched penny of it, no
matter how shabby we went or how hungry
we grew. l was behind the handkerchief
counter and one of my sisters sold stockings
and the other buttons in one of the biggest of
the New York stores There were 100
women about the establishment, and We
talked the matter up mornings and nights
with every one that we knew There was a
literary society that met every week and We
brought it up there, and in two or three of
the girls social clubs beside There were
plenty of girls who lived at home with their
parents, but we found fifty or more who
jumped at the chance we offered them and
were continually urging us to go ahead with
the scheme Finally we began househunting,
not all sure whether we meant TO take place.
or even if we found one to suit us or not. We
were staggered by the city rents as matter
of course. and more than once gave up the
whole plan in despair. We felt like trio of
gamblers, and not at all like the confident
business women we had been at the outset,
When we finally paid down the first months
rent for this house of ours just four months
ago We had staked our all on desperate
chance, and the longer we looked at it the
more certain appeared the prospect Of our
loss.
at was a woman of whom we hired the
place, and she put the figures low as she
could afford, and promised us consideration
in any difficulty so long as there seemed a
chance of our final success. There wasn't
money enough left to furnish very extern
sively, but we got together the needfuls for
the kitchen and the dining room and put up
as many beds as our last lingering dollars
would buy. The girls who had promised to
board with us were eager to come and most
of them had women's kniCkknacks of one sort
bits of fancy work-that frightened up the
bare place wonderfully and made it look
from the first week almost like home Ii
was because it felt like home that we did
not fail There were fifty of us the day the
| house opened, and the dining room and the
| big sitting room and the hallway opened run
ming over with a flock of delighted children.
| To have house to themselves where they
| could do as they pleased was luxury that
went to their heads. They ran up stairs and
down stairs, and the homelier nook or corner
was the better they liked it. 1t was camp
ing out frolic, and picnics were rare enough
| with them all. They laughed because for
| got towels in ordering the linen, and they
| laughed when the milkman went by without
| leaving the milk. They sat up till past mid
night sewing the long seams of the sheets
| They unpacked their trunks and settled the
| furniture aud hustled about in that first weel
| of confusion, III the firm conviction that tht
whole experiment was the most delightful OF
| Jokes that had ever exploded i'll their prosaiC
lives.
Nothing discouraged them and nothing
daunted them. No matter what went wrong
they were determined to he pleased and tC
find in every mishap only the material for {
Jest Iput the board as low US l dared aftel
had calculated the rent and the coal, the ga.
and the table bills left the store, of course
and my sisters did the same The three of u
undertook to manage the house. and one,
| things got i'll running order we found no grea
difficulty with the schine l interviewed tn.
| grocer and the butcher and the fish dealer
| and have been experimenting from the star
with simple meals of wholesome variety anC
material Seventy boarders was the utmos
number we had room to accommodate anC
seventy boarders were on our list before tb.
| first three weeks had gone by When the frs
month of our experiment was over we hat
money in hand for Il second months rent ant
more in our pockets than if we had stayed il
the store After looking at our four weeks
balance sheet put aside the last thought o
disaster to my plan 1t would work; it wa
working, and patience and good health coult
not help carrying it forward without fail"
The building in which this cheerful para
graph of the citys history is being written il
adouble brick house, Astounding in a multi
plicity of small rooms, in a quiet by street L
is not over furnished, but it never groaus n
a sewing machine, nor frowns at a canary
bird, nor tangles woman Ill rules and regu
lations till she struggles for fresh air, It ha
a reading room and a germ of library, anC
it supplies home comforts and home rest at
charge not exceeding from S. to $3.50 pc
week The latest project now under discus
sion is to put the working girls enterprise Oh
a more permanent and substantial basis b,
making of the whole institution a co-operat
i've scheme. Low priced shares of few dol
lars each will he bought by the women out o
their savings, and if it seems expedient funt
will be established for the purchase of th
house-New York Mail and Express.
Arabian Boldness of Color.
| The ArnhS exhaust their preens and hIuns